


Tomorrow they'll be more of us...

by pepperpottsgoddessofmischief



Series: Historical Reincarnation AU: Patrochilles and Lams against the world [4]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda, The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller
Genre: Adopted Children, Adoption, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, CW: Very small mention of cancer, Honestly loved writing this, It is practically pure fluff, M/M, Philip and Lucille are adopted by Alexander and John, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-31 10:08:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18589072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pepperpottsgoddessofmischief/pseuds/pepperpottsgoddessofmischief
Summary: Alexander and John are ready to take the next step in their lives, expanding their family of four to a family of five, but what happens when an unexpected face appears. Could their family suddenly go from four to six?





	Tomorrow they'll be more of us...

**May 2014**

 

"John, what if I’m no good as a dad?" Alexander whispered into the darkness, not making eye contact with John, who was curled into his side in their bed. It was after midnight but Alexander couldn’t sleep, in just a few hours time they were going to visit the foster family of Lucille, an eight-month-old baby girl that they were hoping to adopt. John and Alexander had seen pictures of her coming from her foster mother and she was beautiful, bright smile, intelligent eyes and a head full of soft black wavy curls. She was quiet for her age, not quite testing out the waters of mama or dada but secretly that made Alexander very happy. He wanted to be the reason behind those words, but he would never say that to John.

 

"Alex," John whispered softly, pulling Alexander’s face towards him. He kissed him softly and Alexander let out a soft sigh against John’s lips. John pulled back slowly, letting his head rest against Alexander’s forehead. "You need to sleep. Lucille is waiting for us in the morning, she’s going to love you and you’re going to be an excellent father."

 

Alexander felt his stomach twist with nerves and let his head fall to John’s shoulder, "I’m just scared, John. I’m terrified of what I could do wrong, I never want to make any of the same mistakes again," He sighed and the two men curled together, limbs holding the other tight as Alexander let his racing heart calm to a more normal rate. "I want to be perfect for her."

 

"And you already are my little lion," John chuckled and ran his fingers slowly through Alexander’s hair. John knew his partner would be beyond exhausted in the morning, but he hoped sleep would no longer escape him now they were curled together. "Now we need to sleep."

 

———————————————————————————————————

 

When they came to wake up just a few hours later, John’s prediction after their conversation in the dark hours of the night proved true, Alexander could barely hold his eyes open from the exhaustion of mentally arguing with himself all night. He shook his head fondly and kissed the dark bags that had settled under Alexander’s eyes, with the promise of coffee to come John slipped out of bed, leaving Alexander cocooned in the warmth.

 

Alexander must have dozed back off, because the next thing he knew was cold air seeping under the covers as they were pulled back to allow a new body to burrow into the warmth, he only needed to force one eye open to see the signature blonde curls of Achilles before he pressed himself into the warm body that had joined him, "John must be desperate if he’s sent you?"

 

Achilles chuckled deep in his chest and Alexander almost purred at the sound it made with his head pressed to the body before him, "John’s already been in twice to try and wake you, and Pat’s been in once. I’m last resort. So come on, what’s been worrying you so much that you’ve got this worked up?"

 

Alexander sighed and forced himself to sit up, rubbing his eyes to force himself to wake up and finally looking around the room. There was a cup of coffee on his bedside table, still steaming gently so it was obviously only brought in a few minutes ago, but the curtains were open and the bathroom door closed, the sounds of the shower and singing signaling that John was the one currently using it. He sighed and turned back to Achilles, curling himself into the younger man’s side, hoping he could avoid the questions that he knew were coming. He knew that all three of them understood why he was so worked up, but they kept _asking_ him, it was a therapy technique apparently, making him work through it all. Frankly, Alexander hated it and had voiced that many times, but he knew that they were just worried about him.

 

"Pat's worried about you, they heard you crying in the night," Achilles ran his hand through the long but bed tangled hair at the nape of his neck. "I know why you’re upset, we all know why you’re upset, but that will not happen again. I promise you that Alex. "

 

"How do you know that?" The question was muttered against Achilles collar bone, but he could hear the malice in Alexander’s words, as much as he wanted to snap back, to feel hurt, he knew Alexander was just lashing out because he was tired and he was in pain, he didn’t actually mean any of it. He took a deep breath, carefully thinking over his words before speaking.

 

"Do you want to know how I know? Because if you ever did a thing to hurt that little girl, even accidentally, if she ever even seemed like she was going to follow the same path as Philip I would take you down. You know I can, you know I can stop you and you know I would not hesitate to do so," Alexander glanced up as Achilles spoke, the pain in his eyes evident at the words coming from one of his closest friends. Achilles shook his head fondly and peppered Alexander’s face with soft, closed mouth kisses. "But you want to know something? I won’t ever need to do that. I trust you and believe in you and you would never in a million years hurt this little girl." He felt Alexander’s body go lax in his arms and he pulled him closer, wrapping his arms around the small stressed bundle of frayed nerves that was Alexander. Between the three of them, they worked hard to calm Alexander whenever he was worked up and cut through some of the stress and pain that had accompanied him for both of his lives. They still had a long way to go but knew they would get there soon.

 

 

———————————————————————————————————

 

Alexander wrung his hands together as John pulled up in a quiet little suburb of the city. The house in front of them looked so inviting, a small front garden with the prospect of a garden out the back by the little glances of trees and swing frames that could be seen from the road. John shut off the engine and Alexander tensed again at the new hurdle but took a deep breath. John was right. She was a little baby who needed a home and they wanted to provide her with that. Everything was going to go fine and hopefully, she would find a home with them.

 

"I’m ready."

 

 

———————————————————————————————————

 

Lisa, Lucille’s foster mother, answered the door with a bright smile, Lucille sat on her hip, giggling happily as she pulled at a loose lock of Lisa’s hair. The woman winced slightly and gently untangled the little fingers, "No Lucille, we don’t pull hair sweetie," She kissed the top of her head as Lucille babbled softly in response before turning back to John and Alexander. "You must be John and Alexander, Lucille’s social worker has told me so much about you. Come on in and I’ll get you set up with some toys and leave you to it for a little bit. That sound ok?" Lisa was still smiling brightly as she led them through the hall and into a little playroom off the side of the kitchen. It looked out onto the back garden and, as Alexander had speculated from out the front, there was a swing set and a grassy garden and Alexander felt almost guilty for taking her away from this. He reasoned with himself that they did have the roof that they were in the process of making into a garden and it was only a couple of blocks to the nearest park, she wasn’t going to miss out, their little family wouldn't let that happen.

 

Lisa set Lucille down with a few toys and she smiled up at Alexander, waving one of the toy cars in Alexander’s face. He sunk down onto his knees next to her and started talking, nervous and quiet at first, but soon got swept up in the little one's enthusiasm. John smiled from where he had stopped in the doorway and Lisa smiled at him.

 

"Giving him a minute?" John nodded, eyes never breaking away from where the little pair were sat as he spoke.

 

"Alex…Alex loves children. We’ve always wanted a little one, but he’s scared," John saw Lisa’s brows furrow a little as he spoke and he smiled softly, glancing at her as he spoke. "Alex lost a lot of his family at a very young age, he grew up in care himself, we both did. But I never knew my biological parents, I grew up in long term care from a similar situation as Lucille’s. When I was twelve my foster parents took on another baby, Martha, and she grew up with us until I moved out. Alex was the baby, he bounced from short term care to short term care after his mother died until he was adopted at fifteen, and I think he’s scared of messing this up. He’s terrified of making a mistake." Lisa nodded as John spoke, she knew the stories and knew how the foster system worked incredibly well for some children, who grew up in one stable home, and others moved around for various little reasons that often left them feeling very alone.

 

"I always say if you can give them the four basics; food, clothes, a home and most importantly, love, then they’re living their best life. Every parent makes mistakes, too much sugar on holiday, a cup on the side that they pull down on themselves, the silly little things that may end with them getting a little hurt but is a learning curve for everyone, but as long as all of that is healed with love then their going to be just fine."

 

John chuckled and nodded, thanking Lisa as she walked off to the kitchen. He watched the pair play for a few minutes before he was broken from his thoughts by a quiet voice from behind him.

 

"Are you coming to take her away?" John turned in the direction of the soft, almost whispered question from the doorway. There stood a little boy, soft blue dungarees covering a grey t-shirt. Long black hair in similar waves to Lucille’s hung around his ears, a smattering of freckles covered his cheeks.

 

"Lucille?" John wandered towards the boy slowly, so as not to scare him, and knelt down so they were eye level. "We want to adopt her yeah." He glanced back over his shoulder at Alexander holding a full conversation with a wide-eyed and smiling but silent Lucille. "We can’t have children but wanted to give someone a home. What’s your name sweetie?"

 

John saw the little boy’s face fall and he hopped from foot to foot slowly, eyes locked on the figures of Alexander and Lucille over John’s shoulder, "You’ll look after her Mr?"

 

"Of course," John said softly, glancing between the two. He could see some resemblance in their faces and knew he was looking at Lucille’s older brother. The social worker had only given them details about Lucille, not any extended family. "You’re a very good big brother to her. What’s your name?"

 

The boy glanced at John for a second before focusing back on his sister over John’s shoulder, "Philip." He said softly.

 

John let out a small gasp and stood quickly, he held out his hand to Philip and the young boy looked at it as if he didn’t know what to do, "Want to come and meet Alexander?" Philip didn’t reply, just took John’s hand and followed the man over to where the pair were sat. Lucille’s face lit up as Philip sat down at her side.

 

"Pip." Philip smiled at Lucille and nodded, letting her clamber into his lap.

 

"Well done Luce. Two new words for you," He held up two fingers and she copied clumsily and he nodded. " _Papí_ ," He said the word slowly but clearly and pointed to Alexander. "And Daddy." He repeated the action again, this time pointing to John. The young girl watched the movement of his hand and she nodded firmly as he finished. "They’re gunna look after you now."

 

"Pip." Lucille said again, voice clearer this time and Philip looked away, scrubbing at his eyes hard with the back of his hand

 

"Mamá made me promise Luce would know Spanish. You gotta teach her." His words were interspersed with soft sobs and Lucille tipped her head to one side as she watched him. He smiled wetly at her and she giggled before going back to her toys. John and Alexander glanced at each other and stood, silent conversation passing with just a look.

 

"Philip," John spoke softly, passing the young boy a tissue out of his pocket, helping him wipe his eyes and nose gently. "We’re gunna go talk to your foster mummy ok, if she’s happy then Alexander is gunna come back and ask you a very important question. Is that ok?" When they received a timid nod back from the boy they quickly left the room, tracking down Lisa in the kitchen.

 

The older woman smiled, hair tied back in a tight ponytail as she stood over a mixing bowl, "You two alright? Lucille’s lovely isn’t she, a little quiet but she just needs some attention to get her out of her shell."

 

John nodded and moved with Alexander to rest against the opposite worktop to where Lisa was stood, "She’s a gem, so cute, exactly perfect to almost complete our family. She’s gunna have two really protective Uncles as well, so she’s never gunna be without attention. Can we ask you about Philip?"

 

"Ah," She dusted her hands off on her apron and turned to fully face them. She stayed silent for a few seconds as if trying to weigh up what to say. "Philip is lovely. A little shy but insanely protective of Lucille. It was decided when they came into my care that they wouldn’t be adopted together, that someone that wanted a little one like Lucille wouldn’t want her older brother." She sighed and shook her head, reaching out to the fridge for one of the photos pinned to the front. She passed it to John and he glanced down at the picture, it showed Philip sat on the sofa, a tiny bundled up Lucille held tight in his arms. His face was almost blank, but there was a hard look in his eyes. "He was quite mean when he arrived, but not out of hate, out of fear. He had only been in America for 2 years, maybe 3 maximum, Lucille was only 3 months old and he’d just lost his mother. Final stage liver cancer, she was diagnosed and dead within the month." She shook her head sadly and glanced into the other room, where both children could be seen playing by the back door into the garden.

 

"I had a...a brother, called Philip," Alexander spoke softly, reverting to the story that he told if he ever wanted to speak about his family outside the small group that knew. "He was killed in a shooting when he was nineteen, he stayed alive just long enough for us to say goodbye. I know what it’s like to lose someone, my mother died of an infection when I was twelve, and I bounced around the foster system until I was fifteen when I was adopted by a wonderful person," He sighed and rubbed his face, John rubbed his back and pressed a soft kiss to his temple. "We never just wanted to adopt one child, both of us have always had big families, even if they’re all gone now, and we can’t face the idea of splitting them up, if...could you...we want to adopt them both."

 

Before Alexander had even finished talking, Lisa’s face broke into a bright smile. She pulled both men into a tight hug and laughed happily, "I was hoping you would say that! I want them to stay together so badly. I know their social worker will agree, we both wanted them to be together but needed Lucille to be in a family home as soon as possible."

 

Alexander let out a happy but nervous chuckle and made his way to the door as John and Lisa discussed the details behind him. Lucille was crawling happily around the room chasing a ball Philip kicked for her. The young boy was sat on the sofa, a big encyclopedia book rested in his lap with the open page showing different coloured Labrador dogs. Alexander smiled and watched as Philip ran his finger over the lines of text, mouthing along as he read the words that were there. He watched the boy flip through the book, landing on a different page, covered in pictures of Dalmatians, Alexander knew about these dogs so decided to sit down carefully next to Philip.

 

"You know my father’s got two Dalmatians," Philip jumped slightly at the voice but looked up at Alexander in awe. The older man nodded and smiled brightly. "Yeah, ones called Moose and the other Luther. He’s also got two French Hounds called Tipsy and Vulcan and a little terrier called Frank, but he actually belongs to my other dad."

 

"Wow…so many?" The little boy’s voice was filled with awe at the number of dogs that one person could have. Alexander could see the moment where Philip realised that the shouldn’t get his hopes up about meeting these dogs, as his face switched from amazed to closed off, turning back to face the book in his lap. "Cool." He said softly and turned the page in his book.

 

"How would you like to come and see them one day?" Philip shrugged and turned the page again without reading what was there. Alexander sighed and brushed his hair back out of his eyes. He knew what Philip was feeling, the idea that you were going to be separated from the last person in the world that was related to you, Alexander himself hadn’t seen his brother James since their mother had died in his current life, and decided to go about this a different way.

 

"Philip," Alexander asked softly, looking at the young boy sat on the sofa next to him. "You taught Lucille two new words, you remember what they were?"

 

The boy nodded, his voice soft like a breeze as he spoke, " _Papí_ and Daddy, coz you’re gunna look after her."

 

"That we are, but I wanted to ask you a question this time, man to man, because you’re a big boy aren’t you, you know how important this is," Philip nodded and finally glanced up to look Alexander in the eye. "Ok. John and I would like to know if you would be happy with calling us Daddy and _Papí_...if you want to come and live with us? We love you, a lot, and Lucille needs her big brother."

 

Alexander never received Philip’s verbal response, as the young boy burst into tears and flung his arms around Alexander’s neck, crying into the older man's shoulder. Alexander hoisted Philip onto his hip and rubbed the boy’s back gently. He knew this fear, this feeling of terror for being separated from the only family he had left and Alexander couldn’t do to Philip what had been done to him. Both John and Alexander had taken it as a sign when they found out Philip’s name, for Alexander it was a sign of a way to personally redeem himself and John, it was a way to become part of the life he missed with Alexander originally.

 

———————————————————————

 

"You ready Pip?" Alexander looked down at the young boy that was grasping tight at his hand, favourite book clutched in the other. John held Lucille on his hip as they stood at the door to their apartment. The young boy nodded and Alexander opened the door. The living room was quiet, the soft hum of the TV the only sound in the immediate vicinity but Alexander could hear noise coming from the kitchen and he smiled. "Uncle Pat and Uncle ‘Killies are in the kitchen if you wanna go see them, or do you wanna see your room first?"

 

"Room." Philip said softly and let himself hug into Alexander’s leg. He had been to their apartment a half a dozen times since their first meeting and had been out and about on little trips with all four of them, so everyone could get used to each other, but this was the first time it was going to be permanent. Last time he had stayed overnight his room hadn't been finished, both John and Alexander wanted it to be a surprise, so it was only ever _his_ room. They had made a game of it, camping in the living room with pizza and ice-cream and selection of Philip’s favourite films, so he could get used to the new environment, hoping that his first night properly staying with them as his forever home wouldn’t be a shock to his system.

 

Philip was excited to see his room but nervous about staying, terrified of the possibility of the people he wished to call Daddy and Papí deciding they didn’t want him any more. He’d only stayed over a couple of times, and he’d been so exhausted and surrounded by people to cuddle into that he slept soundly, without any hint of the nightmares that sometimes haunted him when he slept. Would they send him back when they found out he wasn’t a big boy, that he cried for his _mamá_ in the night and an _abuelita_ that he barely remembered? He let out a soft breath as they stopped at the door.

 

Alexander knelt down to his level and took one of his hands in the two of his. He smiled softly at the boy and reached out to wipe one of the tears falling down Philip’s cheek, "This is it _pequeño_ , this is your room. No one else's, just yours. You don’t like anything, you tell me or Daddy and we can change it how you want. Now, want to go in yourself first?" Philip nodded slowly and Alexander stood, opening the door enough for Philip to walk in. He took one step into the room and his eyes roamed over the space. It wasn’t massive, while the two couples had pooled their resources to get an apartment as big as possible the amount of rooms they needed meant that most of them were small, this one was still a good size for a bedroom. It was square shape, with a window on the opposite wall to the door, looking out over the city that sprawled below them. Below the window was the bed, tucked in the corner but still a full sized single bed, next to that was a small bedside cabinet, a little shelf below the top to hold some of his books, a night light lamp and a little bedside clock the only two things on the top so far. In the next corner, to the right of where Philip was stood by the door, was his dresser, coming half way up the wall and with plenty of drawers for his clothes. Straight in front of Philip was a desk, pots along the back pressed against the wall filled with pens and pencils for colouring and a tub to one side with paint materials in. Tucked under the desk was a little green stool, hiding behind that were two boxes for toys and books. In the centre of the room was a rug, the kind with a 2D city on with roads to play cars on. It was honestly the best bedroom that Alexander and John could think of, the four of them sat down one day and made a list of everything that they knew Philip liked, the things they had missed out on in childhood that they would have loved in their bedrooms, and anything they could think of that would make the room as comfortable as possible for Philip.

 

Philip took a quick glance at all of these things, but what caught his attention the most as he looked around the room was the pictures. On three of the walls, either side of the window, above his bed and above his desk, were frames, stuck around half way up the wall and all filled with pictures. He wandered slowly into the room, placing his book on the bed and clambered up to see the pictures hung above his bed. These were all people, while the opposite wall had a mix of people and animals. They all had little name labels tacked to the edge of the frame, the names of the people written in neat print lettering, and the names Philip could call them if he wanted to written in brackets next to the names. He saw the pictures of Alex, John, Achilles and Patroclus straight away. Next to them were a little group of three pictures, one of Lucille that they had taken a couple of weeks ago, on one of their day trips to the park. The next was of his mother, which made Philip scrub at his eyes to stop the escaping tears. It was taken around three months before Lucille was born, when she still looked healthy and was smiling widely at the camera, a slightly younger Philip was clutched in her arms and they were stood in the living room of their newest flat. The last made Philip smile brightly. It was a picture of Lisa, Philip and Lucille, a few weeks after they had been placed with her. Lucille was still a tiny baby, not the babbling almost one year old that Philip could hear playing in the living room, and they had gone to the zoo, Lisa had told Alexander and John when she gave them a copy of the photo that that was the first day she had seen Philip smile.

 

The next he looked at was of a very tall man, his skin was dark and though he was smiling his eyebrows were drawn together, as if he was concentrating, but he had kind eyes. Philip liked kind eyes. He read the name label underneath carefully, sounding out the words under his breath, "G…Geor..dge. George?" He looked to Alexander, who had come to stand next to him, and the older man nodded, a bright smile on his face. The next word was one he knew well. " _Abuelo_. Is he your _Papí_?"

 

Alexander nodded and pointed to the picture as he spoke, "That’s my Dad, yeah, he adopted me from a group home when I was fifteen. He wanted to come to see you today but we didn’t want to overwhelm you too much, he’s the one with all the dogs I was telling you about?" Philip nodded enthusiastically and glanced over to the five dog pictures clustered together on the far wall.

 

"But not Frank," he said softly, brows furrowed as he glanced over his shoulder at the picture of the little brown and white terrier before looking at the picture next to George's _._ "Because he belongs to...Laf...Laffee..." The young boy stumbled over the word and Alexander took sympathy on him.

 

"Lafayette. He’s my other _Papí_ but I just call him Laf because that’s what I knew him as before he was my dad," Alexander smiled fondly at the picture of Lafayette on the wall next to George’s. "You can call him what you want Philip, he doesn’t mind. We’ll go out to their house when you’re settled in, you can meet all the dogs then. What you think?"

 

Philip let his eyes sweep around the room again and slowly broke into a bright smile. He flung himself into Alexander’s side, still smiling brightly but burying himself into he older man’s arms, "Thank you _Papí_."

 

Alexander pressed a soft kiss to the crown of Philip’s head and smiled softly. Their family had doubled in just a couple of weeks, but right at that moment, Alexander couldn’t remember life without this shy little boy in it.

**Author's Note:**

> So this is basically an adoption fic of John and Alexander adopting Lucille, an OC of mine, and Philip. I have never experienced the foster system, especially anything in America, but know a little about how the adoption process works in Britain, so have gone off that. I apologize if anything is incorrect. I haven't really gone into detail with the process, but obviously, as John and Alexander are adopting two children it is mentioned.  
> Hope you enjoyed the fic. Please comment/kudos, as that lets me know what you like. If anyone has any suggestions or asks for any future stories, don't hesitate to ask!


End file.
